[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 148 (Thursday, July 31, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 44785-44786]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-17573]


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OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE


Request for Public Comment With Respect to the Annual National 
Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers

AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: Pursuant to section 303 of the Trade and Tariff Act of 1984, 
as amended, USTR is required to publish annually the National Trade 
Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers (NTE). With this notice, the 
Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC) is requesting interested parties to 
assist it in identifying significant barriers to U.S. exports of goods, 
services and overseas direct investment for inclusion in the NTE. 
Particularly important are impediments materially affecting the actual 
and potential financial performance of an industry sector. The TPSC 
invites written comments that provide views relevant to the issues to 
be examined in preparing the NTE.

DATES: Public comments are due not later than Thursday, November 6, 
2008.

ADDRESSES: Submissions by electronic mail: [email protected].
    Submissions by facsimile: Gloria Blue, Executive Secretary, Trade 
Policy Staff Committee, Office of the United States Trade 
Representative (202-395-6143). The public is strongly encouraged to 
submit documents electronically rather than by facsimile. (See 
requirements for submissions below.)

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Questions regarding the report, its 
subject matter or procedural questions concerning submissions should be 
directed to Ms. Gloria Blue, Office of Policy Coordination, Office of 
the United States Trade Representative (202-395-3475).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Last year's report may be found on USTR's 
Internet Home Page (http://www.ustr.gov) in the Document Library under 
the section on Reports. In order to ensure compliance with the 
statutory mandate for reporting foreign trade barriers that are 
significant, we will focus particularly on those restrictions where 
there has been active private sector interest.
    The information submitted should relate to one or more of the 
following ten categories of foreign trade barriers:
    (1) Import policies (e.g., tariffs and other import charges, 
quantitative restrictions, import licensing, and customs barriers);
    (2) Standards, testing, labeling, and certification (including 
unnecessarily restrictive application of phytosanitary standards, 
refusal to accept U.S. manufacturers' self-certification of conformance 
to foreign product standards, and environmental restrictions);
    (3) Government procurement (e.g., ``buy national'' policies and 
closed bidding);
    (4) Export subsidies (e.g., export financing on preferential terms 
and agricultural export subsidies that displace U.S. exports in third 
country markets);
    (5) Lack of intellectual property protection (e.g., inadequate 
patent, copyright, and trademark regimes);
    (6) Services barriers (e.g., limits on the range of financial 
services offered by foreign financial institutions, regulation of 
international data flows, restrictions on the use of data processing, 
quotas on imports of foreign films, and barriers to the provision of 
services by professionals (e.g., lawyers, doctors, accountants, 
engineers, nurses, etc.);
    (7) Investment barriers (e.g., limitations on foreign equity 
participation and on access to foreign government-funded R&D consortia, 
local content, technology transfer and export performance requirements, 
and restrictions on repatriation of earnings, capital, fees and 
royalties);
    (8) Anticompetitive practices with trade effects tolerated by 
foreign governments (including anticompetitive activities of both 
state-owned and private firms that apply to services or to goods and 
that restrict the sale of U.S. products to any firm, not just to 
foreign firms);
    (9) Trade restrictions affecting electronic commerce (e.g., tariff 
and non-tariff measures, burdensome and discriminatory regulations and 
standards, and discriminatory taxation); and
    (10) Other barriers (i.e., barriers that encompass more than one 
category, e.g., bribery and corruption, or that affect a single 
sector).
    As in the case of last year's NTE, we are asking that particular 
emphasis be placed on any practices that may violate U.S. trade 
agreements. We are also interested in receiving any new or updated 
information pertinent to the barriers covered in last year's report as 
well as new information. Please note that the information not used in 
the NTE will be maintained for use in future negotiations.
    It is most important that your submission contain estimates of the 
potential increase in exports that would result from the removal of the 
barrier, as well as a clear discussion of the method(s) by which the 
estimates were computed. Estimates should fall within the following 
value ranges: Less than $5 million; $5 to $25 million; $25 million to 
$50 million; $50 million to $100 million; $100 million to $500 million; 
or over $500 million. Such assessments enhance USTR's ability to 
conduct meaningful comparative analyses of a barrier's effect over a 
range of industries.
    Please note that interested parties discussing barriers in more 
than one country should, whenever possible, provide a separate 
submission (i.e., one that is self-contained) for each country with the 
country indicated in the subject line of each submission. If separate, 
country-specific submissions are not feasible, please identify all 
countries covered by a submission in the subject line of that 
submission.
    Requirements for Submissions: In order to facilitate prompt 
processing of submissions, USTR strongly urges and prefers electronic 
(e-mail) submissions in response to this notice. In the event an e-mail 
submission is impossible, submissions should be made by facsimile. 
Facsimile submissions should not exceed a maximum of 20 pages.
    E-mail submissions should be single copy transmissions in English. 
Submissions should use the following subject line: ``2009 National 
Trade Estimate Report--Submission by (sector, company, association). 
Documents must be submitted as either WordPerfect (``WPD''), MSWord 
(``DOC''), or text (``TXT'') file. Documents should not be submitted as 
electronic image files or contain imbedded images (for example, 
``JPG'', ``BMP'', or ``GIF''), as these types of files are generally 
excessively large. Supporting Documentation submitted as spreadsheets 
is acceptable as Quattro Pro or Excel, pre-formatted for printing on 
8\1/2\ x 11 inch paper. To the extent possible, any data attachments to 
the submission should be included in the

[[Page 44786]]

same file as the submission itself, and not as separate files.
    Petitions will be available for public inspection by appointment 
with the staff of the USTR Public Reading Room, except for information 
granted ``business confidential'' status pursuant to 15 CFR 2003.6. If 
the submission contains business confidential information, a non-
confidential version of the submission must also be submitted that 
indicates where confidential information was redacted by inserting 
asterisks where material was deleted. In addition, the confidential 
submission must be clearly marked ``BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL'' in large, 
bold letters at the top and bottom of every page of the documents. The 
public version that does not contain business confidential information 
must be clearly marked either ``PUBLIC VERSION'' or ``NON-
CONFIDENTIAL'' in large, bold letters at the top and bottom of every 
page. The file name of any documents containing business confidential 
information attached to an e-mail transmission should begin with the 
characters ``BC-'', and the file name of the public version should 
begin with the characters ``P-''. The ``P-'' or ``BC-'' should be 
followed by the name of the person or party submitting the petition. 
Submissions by e-mail should not include separate cover letters or 
messages in the message area of the e-mail; information that might 
appear in any cover letter should be included directly in the 
submission. The e-mail address for submissions is [email protected]. 
Public versions of all documents relating to this review will be 
available for review shortly after the due date by appointment in the 
USTR Public Reading Room, 1724 F Street, NW., Washington, DC. 
Availability of documents may be ascertained and appointments may be 
made from 9:30 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through 
Friday, by calling (202-395-6186).

Carmen Suro-Bredie,
Chair, Trade Policy Staff Committee.
[FR Doc. E8-17573 Filed 7-30-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3190-W8-P